Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, of Panamanian and Croatian heritage, Qiana Mestrich has studied photography and its history for more than 15 years. Trained as a fine art photographer, Qiana's personal work ranges from portraiture to still life and landscapes. As a world citizen, she's also documented her travels to countries like Panama, Cuba, Trinidad & Tobago, the U.K. and more to come. View Qiana Mestrich's fine art photography on her Web site or read her blog, Dodge & Burn: Diversity in Photography.

A camera obscura box with sliding door from the early 1800s trumpeted as the world’s first camera was recently on display in Macau, China. Its simple method for capturing light and projecting an image continues to drive camera technology today.

Fast forward 200 years, and digital has more than arrived; it is the standard camera format for the world’s photographers. Yet, many of us learned our craft on what some call “analog” cameras.

My first camera was a Minolta X700 from the early ’80s, given to me by my boarding school houseparent. It was my freshman year of high school and I’d gotten a spot in the coveted B&W Photography class, but I didn’t have a camera! My houseparent was gracious enough to give me hers, and I used it for years — until I purchased my own Minolta SLR.

As a shy teenager, my first film camera countered my natural desire to observe rather than participate. It forced me to interact with others and opened up a whole new way of seeing life. With it, I learned the basics of f-stops, shutter speeds and depth of field.

With only 36 exposures per roll of film, I was forced to closely study composition in the camera’s frame and truly decide whether a shot was worth taking.

First Cameras of Famous Photographers

All this nostalgia got me thinking of the masters who were my first photography influences. I wondered, “What were their first cameras?” I did a little research — and found some uniquely personal, life-changing stories.

Mary Ellen Mark

As a 9-year-old child fascinated “by that sense of time stopping and a moment being preserved forever,“ Mary Ellen Mark started taking pictures with a Box Brownie camera. A fine art major, she was lost about what direction to take in life — and then she encountered photography again: “From the moment I picked up a camera for my first school assignment, there was no turning back. I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be for the rest of my life.”

Gordon Parks

The road to becoming the first African-American photographer for Life magazine started when Gordon Parks got his first camera, a Voightlander Brilliant, at a pawnshop in Seattle for $7.50. Of that purchase he once said, “I bought what was to become my weapon against poverty and racism.”

Alfred Stieglitz

In 1883, Alfred Stieglitz bought his first camera, which he saw in the window of a shop in Berlin. He later said about the experience: “I bought it and carried it to my room and began to fool around with it. It fascinated me, first as a passion, then as an obsession.”

Annie Leibovitz

In Annie Leibovitz’s book At Work, the photographer says “I bought my first real camera in Japan, a Minolta SR-T 101. The first thing I did with it was take it on a climb up Mt. Fuji.” Leibovitz’s triumphant trek up Japan’s tallest mountain poignantly ends with her photographing “the sunrise with the two or three frames I had left.”

Joel Meyerowitz

While working as a junior art director on a project in the 1960s, Joel Meyerowitz was sent on a photo shoot with photographer Robert Frank. That same day he quit his job with dreams of photographing the world. His then boss asked, “Do you even have a camera?” Joel replied “No,” but was blessed when his boss offered him his. “With that camera,” says Meyerowitz, “I went out onto the streets of New York and began my life. I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to that man.”

Walker Evans

And just as there is a first, there will eventually be a last camera. Walker Evans took the last shots of his life, which became his second largest body of color work, with a Polaroid SX-70. Of his experience, Evans remarked, “Nobody should touch a Polaroid [camera] until he’s over 60.”

Our destinies are often played out in split-second decisions and choices occurring by chance. That same gratitude Meyerowitz felt for his boss is what I feel for my houseparent.

I can’t imagine my life without photography, and I often think, “What if she never had that Minolta?” (Thank you, Cheryl!)

So to all you digital converts out there, I ask you: what was your first camera? In retrospect, that film camera may not be as sexy as your digital powerhouse. But I want to know what camera ignited your passion to start your journey as a photographer. Feel free to leave your answers in the comments!

32 Responses to “My First Camera: An Homage to Analog”

A Baby Brownie Special. It used 127 film. My parents gave it to me as a gift, the occasion is long gone from my memory. Still have it. Your statement "I can't imagine life without photography" is very very true for me. Photography has and will always be a part of my life.

Vivitar 110. I loved the way 110 film looked. 🙂 Then in art camp at age 12 I had a Canon, but it still escapes me as to what model, was a 35mm film SLR. I was so in love with the medium that I guess I never paid attention to the model. It didn't belong to me...was a loaner from the camp because I couldn't afford such a camera at the time.

My first camera was a Minolta SRT 101 that I had inherited from father when he passed away in 1982. After that I had traded the camera up for a Minolta X-700 and then bought a Minolta X-370. From there I traded up to the Minolta Maxxum 9000. I then traded my Minolta equipment for my Nikon F2,F3, in 1987a,then aquiring a Nikon FM2, and have never looked back since.

A second hand, mint Zeiss Ikon Nettar folding 120 square format, bought in 1970 when I was a student. When I saw it in the window of Aberdeen Photographic Services, I knew that I had become irreversibly obsessed with photography. I hadn't taken much interest in cameras till then and was astonished that they could be so beautifully engineered. I went a few doors aong the street to my bank, withdrew £6.00, returned to the shop and bought it.

My very first camera was a Kodak Instamatic, I believe it was a Model 104. But, what I considered my first *real* camera was a Bell & Howell Auto Reflex 35mm. My grandfather gave me the entire kit when I was 11 or so; camera, 3 lenses and a flash. Actually, he SOLD it to me because he felt that if I bought it with my owned earned money, that I would take care of it. 30 years later, I still have that same camera and it still works.

wow. a Praktica LTL-3 my dad kindda gave, kindda lent me (I still use it every now and then, when feeling nostalgic) back in 1999 when I started college. He got it in '78, when my older brother was born, and kept it working until that day from '99 till now, I keeo it running. it's been a while since I last took it for a spin, though.

Well what started my obsession and desire, that ignited my passion for the moment to capture time...?
It was way back at the tender age of 10, when my Aunty gave me her Kodak Instamatic and a book on black & white photographic development...
the irony in this being she gave me 5 colour cartridge films!
So at age 10, I thought I was a sports photographer when I shot a cross country motor sports rally near to where I lived.
Oh for the days of innocence and simplicity.

I got my first camera at the age of six. It was West-German made Felica. 120 roll film, two shutter speeds and a buit-in yellow filter. I was lucky to find negatives from the very first film taken with that camera (fall 1959).

But my first real camera was Asahi Pentax Spotmatic. No other camera (several Leicas, HBLs, Canons, Nikons etc.) has made such a huge impact. I loved that camera and since that spring 1968 I´ve been hooked on photography 🙂

Kodak Tele Disc. I think I was about 5 years old when I was given one as a gift. Too bad the film was so expensive in comparison with 35mm. I would have been able to use it much more had it been more affordable to shoot.

My first camera was a Kodak dispensable camera. I lost it when I was around 9 years old, used it to shoot for fun for 1-2 years. Since then I've used a Panasonic dispensable camera, a Vivitar which I can't recall what name was it, a Ricoh dispensable camera, a Canon A710 IS (My first ever digital camera) and then my first ever serious camera, Nikon D3000.

My first camera was an Olympus OM-10. I still have it. And as chance would have it, I picked it up yesterday to check if it still worked. It does. Even better, though, was that a roll of T-Max 400 was in there. Must have been there for 20 years. So here's a piece of advice for y'all. Doesn't matter how long your old film camera has been sitting on a shelf.... always, ALWAYS, check for film inside the chamber before cracking the back open. D'oh! 😉

When my dad returned from the Vietnam War in 1969, he brought back a camera bag and a bunch of books. In those books was the whole Time-Life series on photography.

In the camera bag was his Minolta SRT-101, 3 or 4 lenses, about a dozen rolls of film, and a myriad of other supplies.

After a few years, he gave it to me. I played with the camera and lenses for a few more. Eventually the camera broke. I processed the film using my High School's lab. I discovered several rolls hidden in the bottom of the bag.

When I processed it, I was amazed at one I found: Lines of fighter jets and B-52s on the tarmac. Photos of my dad's friends, and scenes of his base.

Becasue I loved photography so much, when I joined the Navy, I bought a Minolta X700. But because I was serious about being a pro, I converted to Nikon buying a F3 w/MD4 motor drive, lenses and strobes.

My first officially published photo was of an apartment fire on East 6th Ave in Aurora.

I fell in love with the process of capturing a moment and preserving it on film. I fell in love with the devices that allowed me to capture my vision. It hasn't left me to this day, which is why I became a professional photographer.

It wasn't until shortly before my dad died that he finally understood what fascinated me so much about photography that I would make it a career. He gave me the key to my future.

My first camera was a brick 🙂
You know, i ordered it after seeing an ad on a local newspaper as VPP (value payable post ) and it came one day, after payment, when i opened the cover with enthusiasm.
It was a brick which had a note saying Happy Clicking 🙁

My first camera was Fujifilm Starr (pocket, 135 film, made on 1996) given by my uncle.
Now it's broken, and I've replaced it with my recently two cameras: A black Nikon FE (SLR, 135 film, made on 1977-1983) and a Voigtländer Perkeo IIIe (Rangefinder, 135 film, made on 1953)